New to the group-into.

[Guest guest]

Hello, my name is Aryn, and my daughter Alyssa, age 8, was diagnosed with

OCD/anxiety in January of 2009. I have had a hard time finding a support group

in my area (Cleveland, OH) and saw this group in a book I am reading. After the

birth of my 3rd daughter (Alyssa is the oldest) it became apparent that she was

having problems. Looking back to her early years, I can now see that there were

subtle signs all along- (no history of strep infection, PANDAS not suspected). I

just brushed them off as a " phase " she would outgrow. But, in December of 2008,

it was apparent that something was terribly wrong. The first thing I noticed was

that she had began smelling her hands all the time and washing. Then she could

not make decisions about what to wear and would run around naked screaming and

then would cower in a corner for hours. She had her thumb nails all dented from

digging in to them with her pointer finger, and she had scabs in hear ears from

digging in her ears. The biggest thing at the time to deal with was that she

would not eat anything that I touched or anything that had to be prepared and

she completely stopped eating meat. If she couldn't open the package herself,

then she wouldn't eat it. At one point she would not even touch food with her

fingers or silverware… she ate things with toothpicks. Clothing is also a huge

issue- she does not wear jeans or underwear and will only wear certain fabrics.

Shopping used to be a nightmare because I was not allowed to touch anything

either was the store clerk. That kind of makes purchasing an item difficult to

say the least. We went to see our pediatrician in Dec. of 2008 and she

immediately put her on Paxil 10 mg a day. We were able to get into see a child

psychologist in Jan. 2009, who tested Alyssa and gave us the diagnoses of

OCD/anxiety. Alyssa's has contamination issues with meat (sandwiches in

particular) and my middle daughter, Alyson, touching her/her belongings or

common community things in the house (like door knobs/silverware). Alyssa has

come a long way with medication (which was increased to Paxil 20 mg a day) and

with talk therapy. Clothing issues are not as bad anymore, the ear digging and

fingernail digging, hand smelling has stopped and I am able to touch things

without it being a problem- as long as I follow set guidelines. We stil have

washing issues and clothing issues but they are not as bad as when she was first

diagnosed. Are biggest issue now is Alyssa's fear of dying from touching Alyson

or something Alyson has touched. For Alyson, life with her sister's OCD is a

nightmare because Alyson has to watch everything she does/touches. It is heart

wrenching to watch. Alyssa is " fine " with everyone else and functions normally

outside the home and with friends for the most part. Academically, she is a good

student. We are just beginning CBT. Last week was her first session of exposure

therapy in which Alyson was invited in to play games and touch things that

Alyssa then had to touch. The session went fine but after the session was over

things got ugly. Alyssa refused to get in to the car for fear of contaminating

her seat and she screamed that she was going to die. It was awful. We have

another CBT session today. Alyssa is being seen weekly at this point. Thank you

for reading my story and for your support in advance!